Laughing Gull “crossed her wake” today at Troy New York. We left August 4 of last year and its a bit unreal to have completed the loop. We're tied up to the dock at the Erie Canal Visitor Center across the Hudson from the boat ramp. Al will drive our truck and trailer over from NH tomorrow and pick us up. So now or soon the “how do you feel about it being over?” and “what will you do now?” questions have to be faced.

The second question is easier to answer. Libbey is anxious to reopen her studio (WhitefieldPottery.com) and resume throwing her lovely pots. Within a few weeks the boat will be spiffed up and maintenance brought up to date and Laughing Gull Boat Charters (lgboatcharters.com) will be taking bookings.

I'll also be looking for interesting and worthwhile projects at BigPineConsulting.com . I'm not opposed in theory to obscenely lucrative projects but have to admit I'm more experienced at interesting and worthwhile. Inquiries and leads are greatly appreciated.

The “how do you feel about having completed the loop?” question defies a simple answer. T.S. Elliot's quote:
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
comes to mind, if perhaps a bit convoluted and over dramatic for a Mainer. Certainly we're not done wandering, or coming home. We're really looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends and our favorite Maine haunts. We're also brainstorming our next expedition, possibly a long south/southwestern road/hiking/paddling trip next winter (suggestions welcome).

We'll put up a few more blog posts before ending. Trip stats, favorite gear/unsuccessful gear, and fitness afloat are possible topics. If any reader is considering a loop trip, we'd be glad to share more details or brainstorm if you'd like. Thanks for joining us on the loop.

3/27-29 While the grey skies did not clear, there was little rain and the beauty of the mashes amongst the Georgia Sea Islands continue to amaze-one of the more delightful surprises to date. The marsh grass is just high enough so that its impossible to see over them from the helm. Libbey often stood on the gunwales to enjoy the expansive view as we cruised along.
A maze of deep channels and canals connecting them would have been a navigation night mare if not for the well marked ICW route. Would love to visit again when the water was warmer and the fish are biting. The usual refrain from the locals “you should have been here last week, the fishing was great” was changed to “you should have been here next month, the specs and the reds will be unbelievable!”
We booked a night at the Isle of Hope Marina (a fine marina and a lovely old small town) and took the bus into Savanah. While not a city person, I have to say I was struck by the beauty of this city, particularly its lovely parks and squares. We spent a fine day walking and trolleying from park to park by way of beautifully kept historic homes and mansions.
After a quiet supper at the marina we did a little laundry and grocery shopping the next morning and struck north into the South Carolina low country
3/30-4/3 Our first night in the aptly named low country was spent on St. Augustine's Creek a deep wide marshy creek off the ICW. One of the immediate differences between SC and GA is that more of the rivers, creeks and back channels seemed to have manes on the chart in SC. Its not uncommon to be on more than a dozen different named rivers and creeks in the course of a days travel. Small wonder why many folks simply refer to a location as mile 123 or whatever on the waterway.
Another day of slow cruising through the marshes and we anchored early on Jarvis Creek when it breezed up hard just before we needed to make a big crossing of Port Royal Sound.
We scooted across Port Royal Sound on calm seas the next morning and ran up the river to Beaufort.
In SC they pronounce it “BewFort” as opposed to “Bofort” NC. In SC they've not heard of “America the botiful”. Beaufort is a lovely town with a historic district full of grand old mansions with stunning landscaping. We shared shrimp po'boy and rib eye steak sandwiches at the Produce Market and Cafe and called it a fine visit before we anchored across the river on a back channel of Factory Creek away from the houses and the nonexistent factories.
We woke the next morning to dolphins chasing fish all around the boat. We watched them dart and zip after their breakfast while we enjoyed ours. We hauled anchor and ran across St. Helena Sound well ahead of an approaching thunder storm. With gusty winds in the fore cast we poked our bow a few miles up the winding channel of Rock Creek and dropped anchor along a wild wooded shore. The boaters of Rock Creek are certainly among the most polite we've encountered on our loop to date. Not one of them zipped by on plane and “waked” us. Everybody slowed down and gave us a friendly wave.
As predicted winds were 15-20kts and gusting the next morning so we had a second cup of coffee and broke out the books for a few hours. The breeze dropped in the afternoon so we chugged 7 miles up to Church Creek, the last good anchorage before Charleston.
4/3-4/17 Please see “A bump in the road” post below
4/18-21 Underway from Charleston. A new routine, while until now Libbey has mostly driven while I exercise or take short breaks, we're now an hour on and hour off. Works great, wish we'd started this sooner. A warm sunny day and light breeze and boat traffic made for a pleasant crossing of Charleston Harbor and we made good progress up the ICW before anchoring on Awendoo Creek.
When we were boating down the inland rivers, spotting another boat flying the looper flag was pretty common and a good occasion to strike up a conversation. When we hit the gulf everybody seemed to scatter and flags were seen far less often. Well, we're apparently back in sync with the pack for these few days we started seeing lots of looper flags and had a number of good chats with folks. When we're cruising at 6-7 knots (best economy and very relaxed) we're slower that most cruisers. When we run on plane at 15-18 knots (wanting to get somewhere at a certain point in time) we're faster than most loopers.
4/22-25
These days tend to blur together. Someheres in here we pass through the heavily developed SC/NC boundary amidst the McMansions and condos that I 'll enjoy forgetting and get intro the wilder and lovelier northern NC.
I'l not soon forget the sight of our anchor dropping overboard when the swivel pin let go one sunny morning in Swanboro. This despite the mechanic's application of loc-tite to the threads a few weeks back on the St. Johns River. We've got 2 spares so we'll look for a good chance to replace the excellent performing Manson
4/26-29 Arrived Oriental NC, “Sailing Capital of NC” and a nice friendly small town. Our hull is badly crusted with shell growth and her top speed has been reduced to 15 knots. We had made an appointment at Deaton's Marine Service to haul and scrape and the crew did a quick and excellent job. We took a a slip there for two nights to wait out a blow that didn't happen but we enjoyed the down time and exploring the town. The yard even had a loaner car which has been rare since we hit the salt water so we got a number of errands accomplished.
We got an early start the next day and ran on plane all day(106 miles)-wanting to get across the open reaches of the Neuse River ( they state that its 6 mile width gives it the widest river mouth on the east coast), Pamlico Sound and the Alligator River. As we ran north down the 5 mile wide Alligator River the breeze pipe up and we bounced our way into a side bay called South Lake. While I was scanning for a likely anchorage, Libbey spotted a bear swimming across the lake. We chugged over to get a closer look (through binoculars) and watched him swim ashore. Big bear! I'm looking forward to some of my more experienced friend's estimate of his weight but I'll guess 250 lb plus. \
The spare Danforth Anchor refused to set on the first 3 attempts-not encouraging.
A twelve-fifteen mile crossing of Albermare Sound was our next course. We made our first attempt mid morning and decided that a second cup of coffee back on South Lake was more fun than taking 3-4' breaking waves over the bow so we turned around.
The breezed died by early afternoon so we made a long run across the Albermarle and up the river past Elizabeth City. The Danforth again failed to set after several attempts at Goat Island (described as good holing ground in the cruising guide) so we continued up the Dismal Swamp Canal to the barge channel by South Mills Lock. The anchor again failed to set so we tied off to the bulkhead.
4/30-5/2 We locked through South Mills Lock (our first since St. Lucie River at the east end of the Okochobee Waterway) and enjoyed a stop at the vistior center and state park with its half mile board walk through the swamp. Anchorages are non existent and dock space is highly sought so we were pleased to find a seried of old pilings that we could tie off for the night to catch the morning lock schedule. Another advantage of a 2 foot draft!
Although we quite liked the Dismal Swamp the weather can certainly be described as dismal, cool, damp and showers. Nice to drop all the curtains and fire up the stove to make a cup of cocoa sort of weather.
The weather followed us out of the swamp and on to the Chesapeake Bay-magnificent in any weather!
An onshore swell and and an outgoing tide made the mouth of the James River stand up in 3-4' swells that weren't quite steep enough to break. We picked our way through them and soon found smoother going as we headed for the mouth of the Rappahanock. We stopped at NorView Marina at the river mouth for gas and to use the wifi to purchase fishing licenses.
We decided to overnight on the Corrotoman River a small tributary to the Rappahannock. Once again we had anchoring trouble. I finally got the anchor to sort of hold by deploying 120' of scope in 6 feet of water, many times the normal 5:1 scope to depth ratio. Fortunately we're meeting up with my friend (Senior Naturalist for Chesapeake Bay Foundation and editor of this blog on the Seaway web site) John Page Williams and he offered to pick up a Rocna (Manson twin) at West Marine in Annapolis.
5/3-6
We ran down the Corrottoman and across the Rappahanock to the small town of Urbanna and booked a slip in the town marina. We walked into town for groceries and planned to return for a soft shell crab dinner but a strong thunderstorm was forecast so we opted for dinner on the boat. We were interviewed about our trip for the local paper by Larry Chowning, a friend of John Page.